No-one to Talk to? Practice English With Yourself!

Today’s video topic is about the importance of practicing English speaking on a regular basis. In other words, if you want to be a fluent English speaker, you have to speak, there are no magic shortcuts ❗

There are, of course, shortcuts in terms of efficiency of the learning process, and you’re welcome to check out my blog to found out more, but in this video lesson let’s focus on the importance of speaking English every day.

You know – even if you live in an English speaking country, there might not be enough face-to-face communication with other English speakers. On many occasions foreigners living under such circumstances won’t go the extra mile to practice some English because it’s not a necessity and they can do without it.

If you’re willing to improve your spoken English, however, you can do so much more to step up your English fluency and having regular conversations with yourself is definitely better that no spoken practice at all!

Talking With Myself? Isn’t That a Sure Sign of Insanity?

First of all, the best occasions for speaking English with yourself is when you’re alone or when there’s no-one in close proximity. That way you’ll make sure no-one overhears you and you’ll avoid embarrassing situations. I’m pretty sure that anyone has at least 10, 20 minutes a day when you’re completely on our own and that time can be very well spent improving your spoken English.

Secondly, you don’t actually have to talk out loud as you’d normally do when communicating with others. Just a slight whisper would suffice to exercise your vocal cords, so even if you’re overheard on rare occasions, it’s not going to sound bizarre.

Let’s say for instance, that you’re working at an assembly line in a manufacturing plant. Most likely you spend your working day thinking about all sorts of things and daydreaming. What I’m saying is – why not use at least part of that time practicing English with yourself? There would be no-one to hear your quiet whisper at the assembly line anyway, right?

But if you think it’s not really necessary to engage in weird activities like thinking out loud in English because you get to speak some English with your English speaking supervisor and you also watch some English TV channels in the evening – I’d say you should think twice.

You simply have to speak as much English as you can, and no amount of time spent in front of TV and reading newspapers will make you into a fluent English speaker ❗

Besides, those few sentences you swap with your supervisor count for virtually nothing considering that an average person speaks at least a couple of thousand words a day.

And you should also bear in mind that by practicing spoken English as often as you can you’ll facilitate your ability to think in English and you’ll add more words and phrases to your active English vocabulary!

Huge Benefits – Thinking in English and Widening Active Vocabulary

You know, it’s one of the biggest issues that foreign English speakers face worldwide – they can’t help thinking in their native language and translating into English. It results in a very slow and hesitant English speech, and it also drains off that person’s confidence. One of the reasons for this issue originates in the very English learning process; yet the lack of English speaking practice also accounts for much of that inability to think in English.

Also the size of your active English vocabulary plays a crucial role in maintaining fluent English speech when you communicate with other English speakers. Active vocabulary consists of all those words and phrases you can use when speaking as opposed to English vocabulary you only recognize but you can’t really use in real-life conversations. Normally foreign English speakers don’t dwell upon these matters and you can often here statements like “How come that I can understand everything that I’m being told in English but I can’t speak anywhere near as fluently?”

Well, my friend, the answer is simple – it’s the lack of spoken English practice and apparently you don’t get enough opportunities to speak with other English speakers. You’re being mostly exposed to passive English input and your English understanding is quite good, but when it comes to speaking, you still have to come along.

So my answer to all these problems is – engage into regular English monologues, and you’ll feel your spoken English improve radically! 🙂

You definitely have situations when you are on your own and you’re actively thinking about something – your future plans, events from the past, and so on. So why not turn that thinking in your native language into a purposeful English speaking practice session? It’s easy, it’ll cost you nothing, and it’s a brilliant way of improving your English fluency and also preparing for important events like interviews and appointments!

hi rob. thanks for the session, it strikes right into my weak spots… i would like to ask you some methods or scenarios that i could use hypothetically to practice with myself. what do i speak with myself? i mean a communication requires atleast 2 people. pls help me out with your valuable suggestions….

vikas

I am always interested. Ping me on 9910688958

Shanky Grover

Hiii, Anchal i can understand ur problem bcz many have faced it. U can improve ur English so fast. For this u have to practice as much as u can. I have a wsp group for learning english which also added our 2 teacher and many student. If u want to join us u can. My WhatsApp no is 9718012446.

vikas

Hy, I have also been suffering from same problem and i know that with out practicing it, We can’t improve ourselves. I read your comments and find that we can help each other by exchanging our languages. This is my WhatsApp No. 9910688958.Do reply me there. So further we can discuss about the medium where we can practice it.If you do agree. Tq…

vikas

Hy, I have also been suffering from same problem and i know that with out practicing it, We can’t improve ourselves. I read your comments and find that we can help each other by exchanging our languages. This is my WhatsApp No. 9910688958.Do reply me there. So further we can discuss about the medium where we can practice it.If you do agree. Tq

vikas

Hy, Vishal I am interested and do agree with your point.this is my WhatsApp No. 9910688958. Do reply here so that we can discuss further strategy to improve our language. Tq

vikas

Hy, I have also been suffering from same problem and i know that with out practicing it, We can’t improve ourselves. I read your comments and find that we can help each other by exchanging our languages. This is my WhatsApp No. 9910688958.Do reply me there. So further we can discuss about the medium where we can practice it.If you do agree. Tq

Achal Thakur

Yes i am interested.
Tell me how we can connect with each other
So that we can speak or chat in english

Achal Thakur

Yes i am interesed .
How can we chat or speak .

vishal

Hii Achal i dont know who you are. but we can help each other.
i am also facing same problems. we can improve our english fluency by speaking or chating.
tell me if you are interested

Robby
I want to connect with you
Do you use facebook or whatt app
I can’t speak english words properly
When i speak they get wrong n if the words are tough than its too difficult
Plss hlep me
I am waiting for your reply

Help me in learning and speaking english.
I need your help too much.
I can’t understand english songs i have to see lyrics than only i can sing the song slowly.
But when my teachers teach us in english i can understand it properly.
I can’t watch the movie without using seeing the subtitle. When ever i go to watch the movie cinema hall and when there is joke in movie i can’t understand the joke.
Please help me .
Do i have to practice writtenwritten english also.
Tell me something Robby .
I need your help very much.
When ever i have to speak english in front of people or student or with my friends words become less to me i can’t understand what to speak in front of them .
I can’t ask any doubt from my teachers in english.
Help me in english n suggest me something.
And help me in improving my thought process also.
I don’t have enough words to speak with others .
What to do tell me .

1) “We end up knowing the same stuff we already know” – there’s a massive difference between KNOWING and being able to USE that stuff. You may know a lot of stuff, but you can’t necessarily USE it all in a natural and fluent speech, and that’s why you have to practice to be able to use all that stuff in your speech.

robby, i found the advice quite useful.. but there’s one small problem with us english learners i want u to think over.. when we practice like this we end up knowing the same stuff we already knew.. we wont get anything new to learn.. besides like this we we’ll keep on repeating same mistakes and there wont be anyone to correct us..

The missing link is SUFFICIENT amount of spoken English practice! It’s the only thing that separates you from a truly fluent speaker, and believe me – if you were to practice intensely for a longer period of time, you would feel a huge difference in your spoken performance levels, that’s for sure! 😉

Ali

i’m good at English i write songs compose, got a good accent and i can also make people understand my point views but i still feel a gap something is always messing .

Ali

i’m good at English i write songs composed got a good accent i can also make people understand my point but i still feel a gap something is always messing .

Thanks for your positive feedback, I really appreciate it and I totally agree with you that we need more love in this world. And guess what? It’s up to us to spread it, so let’s love one another and live every day like it’s the last one!
Speaking of Irish weather – yeah… it’s been really bad this year and I guess it’s not the best place to visit if you’re looking for great weather. The nature scenery, however, is beautiful in any weather conditions and that’s something you’d definitely enjoy, I’m 100% certain of that!
Your writing is alright and while there are a few mistakes in your writing, it’s nothing excessive. I really don’t have much time now to correct it, I hope you’ll understand! 😉
Cheers,
Robby

sexy

Indeed. There is a different between that situation. It is allowed to ‘talk to yourself’ in what Robby just say and not allowed in psychological condition.
Robby,
Thanks for your concern. Your website help me to improve my English. It’s one of my favourite site since a week ago. Such a sincerely person you are. Hope you bless. Instead what happen in this world nowadays, I would like to visit your country in summer one day (I can’t stand with cold weather.) Here I make my invitation for you to visit my country (for free of course. haha).
I wish that you will correct my grammar etc, please. Less attack more love. Thanks.

Hey Robby!
Hope you are fine. i have a problem which is something different. I can write and make sentences in my head super fast but whrnever i have to speak it out, i always forget everything. I get confused. If ayone even speak a singlr sentence in front of me, i couldn’t reply it in english.. My accent is some good but its getting worse as i don’t practice it.. Please help me out.

Ashok

hi sir . i am from india , i can undesrtand english but i can’t speak english. plss sujest me

Laxman Oranw

Hi, Jiya. I am also trying hard to get fluency in english.But in my opinion, we should try to help each other by forming a chat group and practice english by communicating each other on phone.That will help in boosting our confidence.

Builds your English confidence - no more situations when you stop and hesitate when speaking English!

I’m Robby, and I’m a non-native English speaker. Throughout my entire life I’ve always wanted to speak in English fluently, but because of the way English is taught in schools, I always struggled with my spoken English.

Then, one fine day, after years of constant pursuit of English fluency, I realized the key aspect of spoken English improvement – learning English phrases and word combinations instead of studying grammar rules and trying to construct sentences in your head from scratch!

If you’re interested in improving your English fluency too, please check out the English Harmony System which is a product I created to help all my fellow foreigners to better their spoken English and achieve so much more in professional, social and personal life.